Lashkargah

Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan
Country	Afghanistan
Province	Helmand
Time zone	GMT+04:30 Kabul

Lashkar Gah is a city in southern Afghanistan, the capital of Helmand province. It is situated between the Helmand and Arghandab rivers. Lashkar Gah is linked by highways with Kandahar to the east, Zaranj to the west and Herat to the north-west. It is mostly very arid and desolate. However, farming does exist around the Helmand and Arghandab rivers.

History

Lashkar Gah means "place of the soldiers." It grew up a thousand years ago as a riverside barracks town for soldiers accompanying the Ghaznavid nobility to their grand winter capital of Bost. The ruins of the Ghaznavid mansions still stand along the Helmand River; the city of Bost and its outlying communities were sacked in successive centuries by the Ghorids, Genghis Khan, and Timur Leng.

The great fortress of Bost, Qala-e-Bost, remains an impressive ruin at the convergence of the Helmand and Arghandab Rivers, a half hour's drive south of Lashkar Gah. Qala-e-Bost is famous for its decorative arch, which appears on the 100 Afghani note (Afghan currency). As of early 2005, it was possible to descend into an ancient shaft about 20 feet across and 200 feet deep, with a series of dark side rooms and a spiral staircase leading to the bottom. In 2006 construction began on a cobblestone road to lead from the south of Lashkar Gah to the Qala-e-Bost Arch.

The modern city of Lashkar Gah was built as a headquarters for American engineers working on the Helmand valley irrigation project in the 1950s. Lashkar Gah was built in American style, with broad tree-lined streets and brick houses with no walls separating them from the street. In the wake of the Soviet invasion and the long Afghan civil war, the trees mostly came down and walls went up.

The massive Helmand irrigation project in the 1940s-1970s created one of the most extensive farming zones in southern Afghanistan, opening up many thousands of hectares of desert to human cultivation and habitation. The project focused on three large canals: the Boghra, Shamalan, and Darweshan. The new communities of Nad-i-Ali and Marja (now two of the largest districts in Helmand province) were settled by mostly Pashtun migration from all corners of the country. Responsibility for maintaining the canals was given to the Helmand Arghandab Valley Authority (HAVA), a semi-independent government agency whose authority (in its heyday) rivaled that of the provincial governors.

See also

• Afghanistan
• International Security Assistance Force
• Provincial Reconstruction Team
• NATO

External links

• Historical Guide to Afghanistan (Lashkar Gah and Bost)